The Oversight Board, a semi-independent body that reviews Facebook’s moderation policies, announced on Tuesday that it wants more information about the “cross-check” system Facebook uses to “review content decisions relating to some high-profile users.” Cross-check is getting called into question because of a report from The Wall Street Journal that claimed the system lets high-profile users break the rules. Trump’s relative protection via cross-check came up in the board’s decision to uphold the former President’s Facebook ban. At the time, the board noted that there’s limited public information about cross-check reviews — a 2018 blog post is one of the most recent. The company has publicly committed to following the organization’s calls on individual moderation decisions but reserves the right to not follow broader recommendations. With today’s announcement and renewed pressure to clarify a program with issues Facebook’s already working to address, maybe we’ll finally learn more about the controversial program.

Source: The Nation September 21, 2021 21:45 UTC